As I wrote above. Due to the rather low temperatures of a mere 15°C you get this orange peel.

Here's two pictures after the paint has set for a few hours...

You'll notice that I didn't spend too much time sanding it all down to become totally flat. You can see the joint between the pieces of MDF-pieces, but you'll hardly see it when the speakers are placed left and right to the PC-screen. The flash makes it very visible tho.

The brushed and sealed frontplates are very nice tho.

EDIT: Here's two pictures of a frontplate I painted a few years ago, just so you can see what's possible, if you spend more time on the paintjob...

Notice, that the four holes there are 10mm in diameter to get an impression of how bad or good the orange peel is on this piece...

To get the paint really flat, you need to buff and polish it, but I'll never do this actually.

It's not that hard, if you buy a readymade kit and only have to build the box for the speakers.

There's lot's of places in the interwebs, where you can buy these kits, ranging from entry-level €50 kits up to high-end €2000 ones.
The big brother of the speakers I'm building here - the Vox 200 - for example costs €1500

Lookin good!
In a year or so I am hoping to build myself some Statements. Definitely not a cheap job.

How is that aluminum with the clear coat over it? Is it noticeable and does it keep a nice durable finish?

The clearcoat on those aluminum-parts is just to seal the stuff and prevent corrosion aswell as nasty fingerprints. It's not very noticable, but gives the brushing an even better finish and shine, just like you would see on brushed stainless steel. You just need to be careful not to apply a too thick coat of paint, as this would leave a yellowish stain.

EDIT: Soe shots in daylight, to give you another impression of the paintfinish.

First two shots of the aluminum in comparison to my stainless steel coffee-can...

... and two shots of the boxes.

As I said, the finish isn't the best, but it'll be sufficient for the purpose of standing left and right to the PC-screen.

I shoved the dampening material into the boxes after inserting the front-drivers and the terminal, before I started soldering all the speakers to the crossover. When all was soldered I took a quick test, before I put the crossover into the box aswell as the bass-driver.

I also cut some 3mm foam into pieces and glued it to the bottom of the speakers.

.

Then it was time to test the speakers fully assembled.

Even with only my small Sansa Clip+ and a random selection of electronic, rock and classic these speakers put out alot of sound for their size.

After this test was OK, I assembled the grills for the bass-drivers.

I didn't attach the Visaton-Logos, as they're gold and red, not really matching the colours of my desk.

These speakers are really great for their size and price-tag. They are clear and neutral, and have enough bass to let the desk vibrate. They're actually better then the Cerwin-Vega! XD3 they're replacing

All in all the result is very pleasing, but I think I'll buy a nuForce Icon 2 next, to see just how much more I can get out of these two speakers